Before we began our study in Job 2:9, we discussed the organized spiritual growth chart the Lord gave us in 2 Peter 1:5: And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; Job made the choice to add virtue (choosing to do right regardless of circumstance) to his faith which gave him the strength to have God’s wisdom amidst his pain. It was virtue that gave Job wisdom as he responded to his wife when she was in despair and told him to curse God and die.

We are given the same ability, through the power of the Holy Spirit; to endure the most horrific earthly pain and hardships that Job was given. It must be noted that while Job had the virtue to not curse God, he still suffered and lamented and expressed this pain and heartache to those who were in his presence. Having virtue does not mean to be emotionless in our struggles – and this is very important for us to understand as we dissect the practical applications of spiritual survival during earthly heartaches.

In verse 2:9-10 we hear the words of despair from Job’s wife. Before we judge these seemingly harsh words we take a moment to remember that she also has lost all her children, most of her personal wealth, and now she is staring at her husband who is covered with painful boils and in distressing pain. Proverbs 24:10 comes to mind (If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.) as I consider how Job endures such pain but she does not. Could it have been that she did not worship and sacrifice, as Job did, when times were well? It is not her pain that is in question, for that is obvious; it is the contrast between her endurance to stay focused on God and Job’s endurance to stay focused on God. We can certainly understand, albeit a harsh statement, her telling her husband that death would be better – but telling her husband to curse God because of this earthly pain leaves us wondering what she was lacking in her fellowship with God.

Jobs response to her in verse 2:10 allows me to focus on the practical application of maintaining virtue through earthly pain. He tells her that she is speaking as foolish women speak and he also shares with us how he stayed in remembrance that all the good things he ever had were from God and not from anything he did. This statement instilled in me the importance of maintaining who the true supplier and owner of everything I have is – which will help us endure should God decide to take everything away. It is also important to focus on the fact that Job did not call his wife foolish, but said she was speaking as one of the foolish women speaks. We will assume that her demonstration of pain and discouraging words to Job about God were not normal for her.

Why was his wife spared when the rest of the family was killed? It is very possible that Satan used her weakness as a foothold to cause Job even more pain. In the previous chapter we discussed how Satan used the wickedness and weakness of man to assist him in his plan to destroy Job’s faith – this could have been another extension of his awful plan. It definitely made me reflect on my weaknesses and make a more sincere effort to strengthen these fleshly weaknesses with His Word so I am not used in any evil plan of the devils. When someone is experiencing pain or hardship, does my response cause even more suffering or sorrow for them? Throughout the next 30 chapters we are going to learn how improper words coming from those close to Job enhanced his pain instead of encouraging him to endure through his pain.

The most fascinating application of Job’s choosing to add virtue to his faith was in our understanding how he wisely chose his words in response to his wife. Despite his broken heart, his loss of wealth, and now intense physical pain, Job did not lose control and yell unkind words at his wife – even as she was advising him to curse God. This was a beautiful conviction to me as even as soon as last week, I wanted to use the excuse of my situation as I responded to someone untoward. God gives us this example in Job to empower us, in Him, without us using circumstantial excuses. It is also a call to our spiritual souls to remind us that we will not endure the race before us if we are living, in any way, for earthly things. When we are truly living for God – in every aspect of our life, earthly goods, people, abuse, suffering, etc. will not cause us to be depressed to the point that we will question the presence of our almighty God. Job understood that God does not owe us good; if He chooses to give us anything, we should accept it with trust – even if what He gives us is adversity.

The end of verse 2:10 reminds us again that in all this, Job did not sin in all that he said. This is important for us to remember as some will say these calamities occurred because of some negative confession he made, supposedly recorded in Job 1:5 and in Job 3:25.

Many people think that believing in God protects them from earthly troubles so when calamity strikes they question the goodness and justness of God. The message of Job reminds us that just because bad things happen, our Father is ever aware and ever present. Faith in God does not guarantee personal prosperity as the world would define prosperity. In contrast, a lack of faith does not guarantee troubles in this life either. It might just be that God has it established this way so none of us follow Him in faith just to get rich!

We are introduced to three of Job’s dear friends in verses 2:11-13. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar heard of Job’s incomprehensible pain and traveled from afar to be with their friend. These three friends were known for their wisdom; however, in relation to this story, their wisdom was shown to be narrow minded and incomplete. We must be so careful not to get complacent in what we think we know and we need to continually beg the Lord to give us wisdom with each new circumstance in our life. Just like we cannot live on yesterday’s spirituality, we also cannot live on yesterday’s wisdom. This can only be truly understood if we sincerely comprehend the fact that our natural flesh never gets righteous – so we must constantly suppress it by allowing the Holy Spirit to control our thoughts and minds. One of the things we should be careful of, especially the longer we walk with the Lord, is that we don’t become lofty or high-minded. If we are sincerely following God, our attitude should reflect more humility, tenderness and a sweeter spirit.

Even though we will find that these men erred in their judgment, they were considered good friends with their honorable intentions. Their intended goal was good and noble as they came to be with Job to share in his sorrow and their initial desire was to bring the sweet relief that friendship can bring. As they were approaching Job from a distance away, they lifted their eyes and could not believe that their friend was unrecognizable. They themselves mourned, even before they found themselves in Job’s presence, by tearing at their robes and sprinkling dust on their heads.

Upon their arrival, in their honorable fashion, they sat with Job on the ground for seven days and seven nights never saying a word. This, in itself, shows their love for Job and the fact that they did have good intentions. This was a wonderful display of comfort and they offered no words – just their compassionate presence. This time frame of seven nights and days was the usual time for mourning the dead (also see Genesis 50:10 and 1 Samuel 31:13) and we end this chapter with this picture of Job and his friends seated in a woeful silence.

We also finish this chapter understanding that, sometimes, the truest form of compassion does not come from our words, but from our loving silence when someone’s pain is so deep. Too many times we find ourselves, as we will soon learn, talking more than we need to which can cause a person much more pain than necessary. May we all learn to be slow to speak and to defer to each other, especially in moments of crisis.

Prior to starting Job chapter 2 we reviewed the four main sources of suffering chart in the Life Application Study Bible:

Sources:
My sin
Other’s sin
Avoidable natural or physical disaster
Unavoidable natural or physical disaster

We know that Job’s suffering came because of the last item listed above – unavoidable disaster. While we are learning a great deal about true worship and faith, I know that I am personally convicted in understanding that I don’t always know what I think I know. We all tend to judge people/situations too quickly and this is also what we are learning from Job’s story – and from many other Scriptures in our Bible.

In the first 3 verses of chapter 2 we find God boasting about his servant Job again. Yes, this made my heart skip a beat as I knew what was to follow – physical torture for Job. Can the devil change God’s mind? At first, God told the devil that he could not harm Job physically, now He decided to allow it. The answer is that Satan is unable to persuade God to go against His own character; God is completely and eternally good. God was willing to go along with Satan’s plan because He knew the end of the story and the ending glorified God. Job suffering was a test for Job, Satan, me and you – not God.

Satan is told, again by God, of Job’s character traits; perfect, upright, runs from evil and one who holds fast to his integrity. In many places in the Bible we are directed to walk in faith and integrity and we discussed the meaning of integrity. Integrity is the possession of firm principles: the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral standards, completeness, wholeness – the state of being sound. We can have faith and not have integrity – and this can cause us to become stagnated in our walk. Faith is accepting God for who/what God is, integrity give us the ability to steadfastly adhere to what it is that we believe.

As this conversation mimics the first conversation that God had with Satan about Job, we understand that God may have used this repetition to impress upon Satan the futility of his first attack against Job. God makes it very clear that this second test is only going to happen because He is allowing it to happen. In this entire situation, God and Satan both had something they wanted to prove and establish – Satan wanted to prove that even the most blameless man could be bought, and God would prove that he could not. Satan’s greatest goal, even today, is to prove Christians can be bought for a price. Wow, this should really keep us focused on walking in faith and integrity! What will I sell out for? What will you sell out for? Take a moment, right now, and consider any trial you might be facing – could it be that God and Satan are battling over whether you or I will withstand in the name of faith and integrity in our Lord?

This thought gripped at my heart as I reflected on the bigness of our true purpose on this earth. Our purpose is to glorify God – through thick and thin, highs and lows, health and sickness, good days and bad days. We will not do this without our commitment to having integrity as we walk in faith. Think about the rejoicing that Satan and the imps do when one church member disparages another church member based on emotions. Consider the party that the evil ones have when one child of the King gets made and leaves a church. I believe this is why Christian churches are closing in phenomenal numbers – we say we have faith, but we have lost our integrity. We believe in God but we follow the integrity dictated on this earth – which is basically “skin for skin.”

Continuing in verse 4-6 we see that Satan now claims the skin for skin application to Job. Failing the first time, Satan now states that Job failed to curse God only because he was afraid that if he did, he would receive personal punishment/affliction from God. He argued that none of the previous attacks touched Job directly and that Job was willing to risk the skin of his children and livestock, but not his own.

We know, from studying other people in the Bible, that this philosophy has came to fruition in Abraham and David’s life. Abraham betrayed his wife to save his life and David forsook his sanity to save his life. We also remember that Peter denied Jesus to save his skin! Satan now insists that if an attack was made against Job directly – if major calamity came upon Job’s body – then for certain he would curse God.

Satan now suggests a new test for Job – physical suffering. I think we can all attest to the fact that pain can weaken our resistance and make everything feel worse that it really is. But we can draw strength from the many that have withstood tragedies and physical pain and stayed true to our Father. Studying our Bible will strengthen our integrity! The devil counts on the unfortunate reality that so many people count their flesh supreme over endurance.

The makes me contemplate so many of my past sins – and times even now when something so minor can happen in my life and without the Word burned in my heart every moment – I too, will give in to the sin of my flesh. How often do I really give up the comfort of my flesh for His way? Oh, I am so convicted by the reality of the spiritual battle going on at all times. I want my Father to be pleased with me; I want Him to brag about my love for Him!

Struck with painful boils, as we are told in verse 7 and 8, we now know this disease that came upon Job was specifically meant to drive Job to such great despair so he would curse God. Oh, how cruel the devil is and we see that he has the power to attack us in ways we previously may not have thought. In chapter 1, we saw how Satan could inspire others to attack Job and we also noted that God allowed him some control over the weather. Now we see that disease and physical suffering could come directly from him too – another example of this is in Luke 13:17 where Jesus tells us about a woman who was afflicted for 18 years with a spirit of infirmity and was bound by Satan in her condition. This creature is mean and creepy!

Many of the commentaries debate the exact nature of this disease that Job had and that the Bible tells us is boils. Whatever it was, we will learn throughout the next chapters that Job had intense pain, pus-filled erupting sores, anorexia, emaciation, fever, depression, uncontrollable crying, sleeplessness, nightmares, horrid breath, difficulty breathing, rotting teeth, intense itching to name a few. It is believed that this condition lasted for months (Job 29:2 and Job 7:3) and this boldly reminds us that Job had every reason to feel cursed by God – and he appeared that way to others also.

We ended our study today with Job sitting among the ashes scraping his diseased flesh with a piece of broken pottery. He was probably sitting in the town dump – where the fires that were burning could provide the best place for him to attempt to get some type of relief. My heart just hurts for his pain and I cannot imagine how he must have felt – only to receive another blow to his heart full of anguish when he hears his wife say, “Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.” (Verse 2:9)

Adding to my faith – with the Words of this book – integrity.

(Again, please note that my notes are greatly aided by the Enduring Word Commentary, the Life Application Study Bible and you awesome faithful ladies that are helping me grow)

The preparation and discussion for our third week in the book of Job was quite different for me this week. To properly explain this statement I need to give you an overview of how I prepare for class each week.
Previous to putting my notes on paper, I study our upcoming Scripture/chapter for approximately two weeks. The Sunday before class I spread out my three Bibles, two commentaries, my notes, and my IPAD on my desk, fight off a bit of anxiety as I pray for the Holy Spirit to help me put everything in a format that is understandable for presentation despite my excitement – and I begin to type away. Once complete (my notes usually average 6-9 typed pages) I re-read them, along with the Scripture, on Monday and Tuesday, and then I put them down until Friday morning. On Friday morning I beg the Holy Spirit to calm me and to rid my heart of any notions of self and I plead for Holy Spirit clarity, power and wisdom. I do not take teaching His Word lightly.
Last Friday as I was praying, I told the Lord that I felt like I was missing something and to please help me with this uneasy thought. After that, I reread Job 1:20-22 and thoughts just poured out of my head and were scribbled on the closest piece of paper I could find. Out went my nine pages of perfectly typed notes and in with my scribbles that helped me understand the most practical application of these three verses. I believe that this will also help us be very focused with the upcoming teaching on proper friendships. For those of you that were in class, please feel free to add to the following notes as much of what we discussed is not documented.
The acronym A.R.T. stands for Acknowledge, Refocus and Turn – and we began by applying it to these verses. Far too often, we might find ourselves practicing false faith – in other words, finding ourselves skipping over the reality of life on this earth and acting like everything is just fine. Sometimes everything is not just fine and we carry far too much guilt in our pretending that we don’t hurt.
Job’s reaction to his incredible loss was understandable and he certainly acknowledged it by his mourning. We must remember that acknowledging our feelings is easier to do when we understand what is happening – such as enduring a repercussion because of sin; however, acknowledging pain or feelings when we don’t understand what is going on can be quite difficult and filled with guilt or unnecessary self doubt if we are not careful. The proper acknowledgment of pain is not only a good tool that we can apply to ourselves, it is so necessary to apply when we are helping others. We will learn more about what God feels is proper acknowledgement of Job’s pain, as we search the upcoming chapters that reveal the reaction of Job’s friends.
In the midst of his mourning – take a moment to imagine his pain – Job made himself refocus. There is no humanly way possible that Job could have felt like worshipping at this precise moment. Playing on our emotions can be such a wonderful tool of the devil. It is the world’s philosophy that inspires us to only do something if it feels good. God directs us to do what is right, regardless of emotion or circumstance. Because Job’s hope and faith were in God, he forced himself to refocus on God.
Once Job refocused on his glorious Father and worshipped, he was able to turn from his pain and stay firmly planted in truth. He sums it up gloriously in verse 1:21 and said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
The ART of the race – acknowledge, refocus and turn. This is also a picture of what must happen when the Holy Spirit calls us to be saved, isn’t it? We cannot be saved until we acknowledge our sin, refocus our trust from this world to Him and physically turn towards the cross. This practical application of truth is so very useful in our everyday existence on this earth.
There must be a progression of this application in everything that we do. Why do so many Christians, who have the beauty of the promises in our Bible, live such unhappy lives after salvation? Once we are artfully saved (nice play on words!) we may not grow if we won’t approach the art of our race in every area of our lives. Some of us tend to stand on the outside of acknowledgement as we might be afraid to admit a truth to our self.
In some area’s we might acknowledge something; however, we don’t do anything with our acknowledgement – either because of our pride or out of fear. When we make statements such as, “This is how I am and people should accept it!” we stagnate our growth. Or we might keep ourselves from refocusing (the next necessary step) on God and the joy we can have – even amidst pain – by telling ourselves we are not worthy or we feel guilty.
Finally, we may find that we have acknowledged something, then we refocus our thoughts, but we may not turn toward Christ. We might call this being a martyr in a pitiful way – yes, I know I have pain/sin/heartache and I know God loves me anyway, but… This “but” stops us from turning and receiving the joy that He said we can have while we live on this earth.
Using myself as an example, I think of my past divorces and how the Lord has been able to use me to help others. Once I stepped outside of my pride and acknowledged my sin of divorce, I felt freed by refocusing on the forgiveness of my sin. However, for many years, that is exactly where I stood and I did not turn towards Christ and utilize how He grew me by sharing with others. I might even say that my shame and embarrassment stopped me from turning and using my experiences for Christ. When I physically turned, despite what anyone felt about my past, and chose to serve Christ to the best of my ability, He was glorified. Wow.
The above applications of the art of our race have been personal – we took it to the next step and realized how important it is to impart our newly found acronym on others. After all, isn’t our greatest desire as children of God to serve others? We know that the proper application to self is a must – and this, in turn, should pour out to those that we serve. This should be applied starting in our own family, extend to our church family and our community.
How often has someone felt alone in their pain because they feel they have no one that will properly acknowledge their feelings? Often, with people that I try to mentor, I find that they are uneasy or fearful of even talking to their spouses or parents – and this just shouldn’t be so. It is only out of long-suffering love that we can be a dear friend to someone in their pain and we can help them by showing them the proper way to mourn or hurt – just as Job showed us. With gentle speech and loving guidance, we can help others to refocus on the everlasting greatness of our Father in Heaven. And finally, how beautiful it is to see the fruit of your Christ-like labor as we watch someone’s life turn towards Christ and serve others.
In order for us to properly apply His art to our race we must begin, just like Job, to keep God and His truth first and foremost in our thought process and life. Job spent his life worshipping God because of who God was – sacrificing for God, and understanding that everything he had was God’s. He did this when times were good and he claimed this when times were bad.
I want to be honest with myself and grow from this message that the Lord laid upon us as a group. There are areas in my life that I have stunted my spiritual growth by sitting in the acknowledgement arena – refusing to refocus because of my pride. There are people in my life that have not received the art of His love from me – and I vow to change this!
All it took was the first step – studying His Word. The art of the race – we are in this together.

The Real Battle & The Real Goal

Blameless – what a fascinating description for Job.  What an intense personal conviction for me.  The only way I can stay blameless before the Lord is to truly meditate on – in everything I say and do – the fact that God is in control of every detail of my
life.  If I believe this, then I can stay blameless before men through good times and bad – and even in the moments of great earthly despair, I will care more that my fellow man or woman see Christ in me so my life will glorify God.

It was a glorious reminder to realize that God is in control of everything Satan does.  We often give the devil more power than he deserves and this must thrill his evil soul.  Satan, the accuser, loves when God’s children cry out, “Why me?” instead of, “Use me!” in every circumstance we are faced with.

Satan attacked Job’s motive for loving God and this is something he wants to attack in each of us today.  Satan told God that Job loved Him only because of what God gave to him as far as earthly possessions.  That devil just cannot believe that any person desires to love God simply because He is God.  The devil is constantly analyzing why people trust God and he searches to prove himself right in our life – he loves fair- weather believers.  Fair weather believers are those believers that follow God only when everything is going well for them.  Any type of earthly problem destroys the walk or ministry of this type of believer.  God expects us to express our faith in Him to the world.

The practical question to ask myself is this, “What stops me in my walk with God?”  I praise the Lord that I am learning this right now.  Just recently I had a situation occur that just took the wind out of my sails.  In all the studying, praying, serving I try
to do – I am not exempt to the nasty fleshly attitude that often rears its ugly head.  Oh, how thankful I am that the Word of God is more powerful than my flesh and that we each have the Holy Spirit to call on to keep us focused!  In that one moment of earthly heartache, I experienced that desire that just made me want to run away and live on a hill top far away from anything that would
discourage me.   I took my eyes off my glorious Father!  If problems stop me from walking in faith, then my faith is not in God.

In verses 1:9-12 Satan tells God that Job fears him only because of the wall of protection that He put around Job and his home and property.  The devil challenges Jobs faith to God and with a pompous accusation tells God that if everything is taken away from Job then Job will curse God to His face.  Wow, that devil has a pride that is amazing.

Have you ever heard the statement, “Every man has a price?”  That is the foundation for the chaos thatSatan inflicts on children of God.  We should have no earthly price on our service, love and faith in God.  We should be inspired by Job and by thousands
and thousands upon thousands of people who have been tempted by the devil and the imps from hell yet trusted in God.

It was interesting to note in the commentary that the accusation against Job was also an accusation against God that implied God had bribed Job into obedience.   This is why Satan believed (and believes still) that adversity would move Job from his standing faithfully for God.  We must cling to our Father and the urging we are giving in Ephesians 6:13 to take on the whole armor of God so we may be able to withstand in the evil day!

The story starts to unravel as God gave Satan permission to attack the things that Job held dear.  God let down that hedge of
protection – without completely removing it – to prove how faithful his servant Job was.  It is completely freeing to realize that God is fully aware of every attempt by Satan to bring suffering and turmoil upon us.  Yes, while God may allow us to suffer for a reason, often beyond our understanding, He is never caught by surprise and is always compassionate.  God does not do things in our life to make our life simpler, He allows or gives things for one purpose and one purpose only – so that He will be glorified.

Plan in hand Satan leaves Gods presence and began his sequence of events in the spiritual realm that were very real but not immediately apparent to Job.  The origin then and the origin now, is that fact that this was a spiritual battle.  It is always a spiritual battle – we must be very careful as we judge what we think we know.  This revelation of the heavenly scene behind the earthly scene should help us understand the later comment by James regarding Job in James 5:11, “Behold we count them happy which endure.  Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of
tender mercy.”

     The two great themes of the Book of Job, as explained by James, are the same themes of our lives, 1) perseverance through faith and 2) the end intended by the Lord.  This is the real battle and the real goal.

We get a small glance at the happy scene on earth in verses 1:13-19, Job’s children having a celebration and the devastation begins to unfold.  Satan maximized his ugly work against Job by bringing major catastrophe to Job in the span of a few hours.  In that short period of time (maybe 30 minutes?) Job lost his oxen, almost all his servants, his sheep, his camels, and his children.  This brings such anxiety to my heart as I attempt to feel even 1/1000th of what his heart must have felt like.  Satan had decided that if he were allowed to attack Job, he would do it in the most effective way possible.

Yes, that is what the devil wants to do with us.  Maximize footholds in our life and use them against us with the ultimate goal of inserting a wedge between our focus and faith on God.  How careful I want to be to not allow Satan to utilize my weaknesses and give him the advantage.

The death came to Job’s children as they were feasting at the oldest brother’s house.  We know from the beginning of the chapter that Job would specifically offer sacrifices for his kids on these celebratory days, just in case there had been any occurrence of sin.   Yet, these prayers on behalf of his children did not prevent this earthly catastrophe.  Can you imagine the anguish in Job’s heart, especially knowing that he just prayed and offered sacrifice for his children?  This probably made this crisis all the more mysterious and heart-breaking to Job – did he question whether or not God was listening to him?  If he did, he immediately reminded himself of the all powerful, all loving, all merciful God – as we will soon find out.

It was interesting to read that one of the messengers said that the “fire of God is fallen from Heaven”, as if implying this part of the catastrophe was done by God.  This is very profound that Satan orchestrated these words to be spoken, another trick (maybe?) to shake Job’s faith.  From the Chaldeans, the Sabean’s, the fire and the wind, we can understand that Satan has a certain
influence over the weather; however, we must remember that it was God who allowed him to have this influence.  Satan also used the evil nature, of which we all have, of the Chaldeans and Sabean’s to do his dirty work.  Another practical warning for us to be careful that we are not tools of the devil with the sin that so easily besets us.

What weakness do you and I have that we must keep ever before us so that it is not used to aid and abet the evil one?  It is my job to keep my sin ever before me and to keep confessing and growing in the Lord so Satan does not have a foothold through me!  As a child of God, this evil creature loves to use a vessel of the King so that people can blame God instead of recognizing the true spiritual battle we face.

We also find that while this attack was clearly focused against Job, others suffered because of this attack and God allow this to happen also.  Job’s animals, servants and children all died because Job was the target and this would seem very unjust and cruel if we do not understand the eternal plan.  In the deaths of these people, God did not allow them to pass from an immortal state to a mortal state.  Each of these people were born mortal and subject to death; the only surprise in their death was that they died sooner than they probably expected, not that they died.

The assumed rightness or wrongness of what God either allows or does can only be judged by the measure of eternity, not the measure of this life.  God is perfect and God is always right.  We must always trust in and understand, once again, the real battle and the real goal.

I am amazed that Job did not start blaming all the circumstances, the evil earthly men involved, the weather, or God on what happened.  We see the reaction and focus of Job in verses 1:20-22.  His heart was full of a sorrow that we cannot comprehend – he tore at his robe and shaved his head and fell down on the ground and worshipped God.  Wow.  Yes, Job mourned his tremendous losses.  He lost his sons and daughters and servants and a great amount of material wealth.  It certainly was a time for great mourning and there is nothing wrong with mourning.  It is important to note that while Job mourned, he did not mourn as the heathens or pagans mourned.  He did not cut or gash or tattoo his body, for the dead, as was common practice among the pagans – he mourned like every child of God should mourn.  He mourned and made himself focus on his great God – he did this by
worshipping amidst his pain.  Job worshipped God in spite his circumstances and feelings.  We might say that this is the purest form of true worship; when our worship has absolutely no external factor other than God.

What an intense practical focus and application for all of us to have on the truest form of worship.  Yes, it is so wonderful to be
inspired by a beautiful song in our worship.  It is also so uplifting to be inspired by our fellowship with one another as we worship.  But what kind of worship is in our heart when we hate the music or our fellow brethren is annoying us?  Are we mature in our faith
to worship anyway simply because of our glorious Father?  Convicting.

Later on in this book, as this spiritual battle is played out, we will learn about Job’s other reactions to his physical ailments, friends that are being judgmental and even a wife that is distraught.  Yet, we must remember this picture of Job’s first reaction to all his anguish, as it is often very telling of a man and usually reveals what dominates in His heart.  Our first reaction to the
distresses in our life is often what dominates our hearts also.  What is my first reaction to horrible news, mean people, earthly crisis’s and even death?  If it is not proper mourning and worship then I want this to be revealed so I can grow in my relationship my Father!

The result of proper mourning and worship gave Job a focused view of his horrible earthly situation.  He adjusted his pain with the realization that all that he was given on this earth was from the Lord; therefore, the Lord had every right to take it all away.  Notice that Job never once said that he lost everything that he had strived to earn.  Everything was from the Lord: Job understood the true meaning of stewardship – all that he had was not his and He trusted in the true “owners” decision and right to take it away.  Job knew that God was in control of his life no matter what the immediate source of adversity or tragedy was.  He knew that any occurrence in his life had to pass through the loving and wise hands of God before it could touch him.

Every good thing that we have is from God and they are gifts that are undeserved.  God gives them out of kindness and thoughtfulness and knowing this, sweetens the value of everything we have.  Things are more precious because they are gifts from our Father!  How it must pain God’s heart when any of us complain about our lack of anything in our life.  It is also so incredibly easy to give back to God when we really have a true understanding that it all comes from Him.

We must always worship the Giver and not the gifts as the Giver is greater than any gift that He gives.  That is what Job did as God revealed the final statement in chapter 1, “In all this Job sinned not,nor charged God foolishly.”

Through worship, and despite earthly tragedy and pain, Job stayed focused on the real battle at hand – and because of that, he would also realize the true eternal goal.